This forum is an un-mediated, patient-to-patient forum for questions and support regarding herpes issues such as: Herpes symptoms and treatments, causes, diagnosis, and herpes in men, tests, telling your spouse or partner.

I don&#x27;t know if I have Herpes.

About a month ago I had relations with a partner who knows she has type 2 herpes. She became aware of her having it around 3-4 months ago and says she has never had any visible symptoms. As well, I do not know if she is taking any medication. I am unsure if I have herpes as the most intimate we got was dry sex (humping), I had pajama like pants on, no shirt and she was only in her underwear, but her vagina was revealing at some point. As this was going on I had rubbed the exterior of her vagina a couple of times and my fingers were in her mouth at some point too. The dry sex was followed by her giving me oral sex. I saw no lesions or blisters on her mouth or genital area.

A couple of days after contact with her I felt a tingling in my scrotum after masturbating. At this point, I did not know she had herpes and was not worried about having contracted anything. I got in touch with the girl about any STDs and she told me she had herpes. After the tingling I felt a sharp consistent pressing pain in my scrotum and lower genital area, this persisted for around 5 hours. It may of been in my head but then my legs and back got sore and I had a headache (flu like symptoms) but then again I had been all over the internet stressing over if I had herpes. Since then my genital are has been on and off itchy, some days its really annoying and it's uncomfortable to even wear clothes and walk and other days it's fine. 3 days ago I noticed a single small dark red bump on the area above the genitals, with small patches of red skin around and in separate areas near the bump. All together the area is small, around the size of my thumb finger nail. At this moment, 3 days after I noticed it, the bump and red patches are fading, with the bump being smaller and less red than before. I know it is not a hair as it does kind of look like a pimple. This scares me because it is the area in which her skin would have made contact with my skin.

I have had a urine sample for gonorrhea and chlamydia, both negative and I have just received a culture test for the bump yesterday, but the bump was not at the same redness as initially spotted. I've been to two doctors requesting a blood test, but both have said one does not exist for herpes in males. I am still unsure to if this is the truth. It's worth noting I know I have type 1 herpes (oral) and live in Canada.

What are my next steps? Does it sound like I have herpes? What are my chances that I did contract it? Does anxiety cause some of my symptoms?

Hi, Hi of course testing is the only way to diagnose herpes and the dry humping from what you describe would not pose threat to contracting herpes as you did have a clothing barrier. Its mostly contracted through unprotected sex or naked rubbing and grinding of the genital areas.
You do mention there was some tempoary genital exposure but it would not appear sufficiently a big threat to contract it that easily.
The more threat would be from the oral sex but if she has hsv2 genital then that would not be any risk

You mention your scrotum but this area is not a herpes prefered spot as the skin is thick and not many nerves there for the herpes to enter.
Also you sores do not fit the herpes profile.
You do mention tingling but this is a prodrome term mostly for those who already had an outbreak The tingling in your scrotum area may be a sign of hemorrhoids.
The next step is waiting for the test results but remember swabs are best taken within 48 hours after appearing.

Do let us know how the test turns out and to the contrary, there are tests for both hsv1 and 2 for males.

Hi, Hi of course testing is the only way to diagnose herpes and the dry humping from what you describe would not pose threat to contracting herpes as you did have a clothing barrier. Its mostly contracted through unprotected sex or naked rubbing and grinding of the genital areas.
You do mention there was some tempoary genital exposure but it would not appear sufficiently a big threat to contract it that easily.
The more threat would be from the oral sex but if she has hsv2 genital then that would not be any risk

You mention your scrotum but this area is not a herpes prefered spot as the skin is thick and not many nerves there for the herpes to enter.
Also you sores do not fit the herpes profile.
You do mention tingling but this is a prodrome term mostly for those who already had an outbreak The tingling in your scrotum area may be a sign of hemorrhoids.
The next step is waiting for the test results but remember swabs are best taken within 48 hours after appearing.

Do let us know how the test turns out and to the contrary, there are tests for both hsv1 and 2 for males.

Thank you for your reply, is it possible all my symptoms were the onset of me having anxiety over having them? As well, how would I go about getting a hsv-2 blood test, as two doctors have not given me one.

anxiety can cause many symptoms. Ask about the biokit test which is fast and simple and hsv2 specific. But again from what you describe about the genital contact, its really unlikely you contracted herpes. There needs to be some prolonged exposed genital rubbing and grinding to force the virus into the nerve.

So you're saying there would of had to of been prolonged genital on genital rubbing for the virus to enter through my skin? Because I've also read any friction or grinding force on the symptom free skin can arise the virus to the skin, or something like that.

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